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 There
are an infinite number of blends of footing materials that are
used by equestrians in indoor arenas. The common problem in all
footings is that they start out great but over time quickly develop
nuisance dust because the footing is pulverized by the hoof action
of constant riding and pounding.
Footings are a very individual thing. Some may prefer
a “Palomino” mix of sand and stone dust, while others
want a blend of wood, sand, and stone dust, and others want only
crumb rubber or chip rubber and sand. There is no limit to the
formulas of footings for each individual facility. The common
denominator is that over time they ALL break down, and dust becomes
a problem. Even rubber products will break down and eventually
become airborne dust particles. Hunter Jumper arenas want footings
that are firm but cushy while dressage arenas want a highly consistent
footing with about 3-4 inches of loose footing on the surface.
The US Department of Labor has some staggering statistics about
the ill effects of dust and respiratory illnesses caused by it.
Nearly every riding arena has sand of some type somewhere in it;
either as part of the subsurface or base, or as part of the footing
itself. Sand contains silica, and silicosis is a well-documented
INCURABLE disease that is cause by inhalation of airborne silica,
or sand. Wood fibers also are a very real health problem. Consider
that when the maximum permissible dust levels in the average woodshop
are exceeded, OSHA or local health authorities are not only permitted
but are required by law to shut down the facility until the dust
is mitigated.
While there are many types of dust, all dust is the result of
the material becoming so finely pulverized that it can become
airborne and consequently inhaled. The easiest way to mitigate
dust problems is with the addition of water to weigh down the
particles and prevent them from floating.
Water is a viable solution (pun intended) for dust
problems in many areas, but it does not come without costs. You
must have the water or purchase it, then dispense it with a sprinkler
system, and then that sprinkler system must be maintained, which
means pumps, pipes, hoses, and potential plumbing problems.
Enter MAG, a proven humectant or hygroscopic agent
that draws in moisture naturally. MAG is a form of magnesium chloride
that is harvested from the Dead Sea, a source of life giving minerals.
MAG will draw in water and then hold it at an impressive rate.
One pound of MAG can hold up to four times its weight in water
under ideal conditions. MAG will draw in moisture continuously
and indefinitely and suppress dust permanently in any type of
footing in any indoor arena.
Applying MAG to an indoor ring is all art and little science.
Recognizing that footings are very individual, the objective in
all footings is to maintain a consistent level of loose material
to provide the desired amount of give.
The objective of proper dust control using MAG is
to “sneak up” on the correct amount and NOT OVERAPPLY.
When applying the product, always apply conservative amounts over
a period of weeks, allowing ring use to mix the product into the
footing to achieve the desired level of dust control.
The worst thing that you can do when using MAG is to water your
ring. Once you commit to using MAG, it is very important that
all watering for dust control is halted. The reason is simple:
You are applying a dust control agent at the surface, and gravity
and hoof action will help it to penetrate the footing, coat all
the particles of footing and hold them down on the arena floor
where you want them. By watering after you have applied MAG, you
are rinsing the product off the top and into the subsurface.
The amount needed varies depending upon your ring, but generally
speaking, we find that it takes 2 to 4 pallets of MAG to achieve
complete dust stabilization. Once the ring is completely stabilized
you NEVER need to water again. In fact, watering the ring after
it is stabilized with MAG is counterproductive and only rinses
the dust control agent into the base where it does you no good.
We recommend a maintenance dose of approximately one pallet per
year to touch up around doorways where traffic and rain may remove
the treated footing, and also to combat dust arising from other
materials that are added to the indoor arena such as contaminants
from boots, hooves, and manure.
MAG is very safe to use and handle. The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) uses a document called a “Material
Safety Data Sheet” (MSDS) to standardize information about
all materials. On this form OSHA uses an industry standard for
toxicity called an “LD50”, which is the amount of material
that is required to kill at least 50% of the test subjects. While
this is a morbid thought, it is the standard that the government
has established and is recognized industry wide. The LD50 for
strychnine, a rat poison, is 16 (milligrams per kilogram of body
weight). The LD 50 for aspirin and calcium chloride is 1000 mg/kg.
The LD50 for table is salt 3,000, and the LD50 for MAG is 8,100!
That means that MAG is 2.5 times less toxic than table salt, is
about half as toxic as baking soda and is very comparable to vitamin
C, ascorbic acid.
MAG will last forever, or until you wash it away with water or
add new footing.
This is the most important part of any successful program; Maintenance.
You change the oil in the tractor, the car, and grease and maintain
all the other tools of horse management so why wouldn’t you
also maintain your riding surface? We recommend that you regularly
groom your riding surface with either a tine harrow or other drag-type
device which will pull the footing up from the base and turn it
over. Even an old piece of chain link fence dragged behind a machine
will smooth out and level the riding surface. More often than
not, the highest levels of dust are seen when grooming an untreated
indoor ring. The best grooming devices are ones which have “teeth”
that will dig into the footing and fluff it and turn it over while
smoothing it out at the same time.
So, regular grooming is the #1 way to properly maintain
your indoor ring once it is treated for dust. Next, a small maintenance
dose of MAG for use around the doorways and problem areas is recommended.
The average 100 X 200 indoor ring will take three pallets of MAG
to fully stabilize and then one pallet of MAG per year to maintain.
Compare these costs to the costs of a sprinkler system and frozen
footing in the winter.
There is a side benefit to MAG stabilization that has not been
mentioned: freeze proofing your ring. You will never again be
forced to shut down in winter because the water saturated footing
in your indoor froze up, and you could not ride in it because
it is like a frozen moonscape. MAG will keep the same consistency
in your footing throughout the year including those sub-zero days
when you were not able to ride because the indoor was hard as
a stone.
No! MAG is not a liquid – it’s dry flake form! Recently,
others have begun to try to capitalize on the enormous success
of our MAG. Some companies now offer a modified liquid product
which appears to be a blend of unknown waste corn or agricultural
chemicals and claimed to be mixed with an unknown source of magnesium.
Do not be mislead by others claiming to offer the performance
of our MAG magnesium chloride in liquid form. It’s impossible
to have the same performance of a dry product in liquid form,
even if you were to liquefy MAG and then mix it with something
else. These are not MAG which is a registered trademark of Dead
Sea Works and ONLY MAG offers the absolute performance guarantee
for dust control in your footing.
ONLY MAG products have the benefit of experience
of more than 15 years of use in Europe and New England. These
unknown liquids are new to the market, are unproven, and there
is NO TOXICOLOGICAL DATA on them as to long term effects on equine
health in legs and hooves over a long period of time. Know what
you are buying and be sure to demand a certificate of analysis
which certifies the minimum MgCl2 content. Our MAG is guaranteed
to be 100% MgCl2, hexahydrate while liquids chemically cannot
contain more than 33% MgCl2,. There are NO agricultural or distiller’s
waste products in MAG; it is a pure natural product that is extracted
from the Dead Sea – a source of life giving minerals. The
costs of these liquids seem to average $0.15-$0.30/ft2, which
is equal to about $2000 per treatment and $3000 per year on the
average indoor. That is more than five times as expensive as MAG!
Don’t be fooled by imposters
who are claiming to perform the same as our MAG!
The term “this is not rocket science” comes to mind
first. Think of applying MAG to your indoor as though you are
fertilizing your lawn. You want to get even, thorough coverage.
To do this we recommend the use of a broadcast spreader, or rotary
spreader. We have had excellent results using a Brinley 150 lb.
spreader that Home Depot sells for less than $200.00. It is mostly
plastic with stainless steel knife gate and application adjustments.
Using a rotary spreader, fill the spreader to capacity
and begin at the far end of the arena away from the “stockpile”
of MAG. Open the spreader up to full capacity (wide open) and
then begin by making a checkerboard pattern going first north
and south in your arena and then east and west over the same area
in a checkerboard pattern. When MAG is properly applied, it will
look like it just snowed a light snow in the indoor. You will
immediately see MAG start to pull in moisture and dissolve into
the footing. This is what it’s supposed to do and what will
effect dust control. Start off by putting a rate of 2.5# per square
yard of surface.
To determine your square yards, take the width
times the length divided by 9. Multiply that number by 2.5 to
determine what you will need for an initial dose. See the example
below:
100’ wide times 200’ long = 20,000 square
feet
20,000 square feet divided by 9 = 2,222 square yards
2,222 square yards times 2.5 lbs. per yard equals 5,555 lbs.
of MAG for the first application.*
* This is only the first application but because
all footings are different, and dust levels vary widely, this
is a starting point that is more than half way to complete
control for the average indoor. Next we suggest that you “sneak
up” on the final amount needed for complete dust control
in your indoor. Continue to add MAG but do so at much lower
levels until you have achieved complete dust control. The
second, and all subsequent applications, should be at approximately
1000 lbs. over the entire indoor. It is very important to
not over-treat. Over-treating will result in a fully saturated,
muddy, slippery, wet footing, that will compact and work against
you. If you do make a mistake, and one week after treating
find that you have over treated your indoor, then use a sprinkler
to rinse away some of the product and drive it into the subsurface.
This must be done with great care to avoid over rinsing and
losing the job that you just worked so hard to do. With so
many different types of footing, it is impossible to speculate
about how much MAG it will take to stabilize or how much water
it will take to “remove” some of the MAG that was
over applied. As stated up front, this is not rocket science,
and as a stable owner and barn manager, you know better than
anyone that common sense is the best guide.
Realize that a treated ring needs some time to
equilibrate or settle. While the first day after the first treatment
you may think that you are all set, we find that a week or two
later dust may begin to break through a little as the fines
underneath the surface begin to work up and need to be treated.
Typically a small maintenance dose of MAG is required from time
to time to suppress new fines as they develop in normal ring
use and around doorways and entries where rain may wash away
some of the treatment, or where dirt and other sources of dust
are dragged in to the arena.
- Prepare your ring to be treated by grooming and
leveling.
- Use a checkerboard pattern to apply product evenly.
- Do Not Water - Ever! (It is ok to “spritz”
the ring once.)
- Thoroughly rinse down all equipment after each
application. Ask for our brochure to understand more about this
extremely safe and proven dust control product. Packaged in
50 lb. bags and available in either flake or pellet forms:
Do you have any questions? Contact us today
at 508.520.3900
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SEEKING DISTRIBUTORS FOR ALL AREAS
OUTSIDE OF EAST COAST US
We currently service and deliver to the
following states: NC, VA, MD, DL, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA,
ME, NH, VT and can deliver small quantities (1-2 pallets)
to barns in any of these states.
We currently are unable to ship product
in small quantities (1-2 pallets) competitively in all areas
west of the East Coast states. To service barns in all states
west of the East Coast, we must establish distributors or
groups where we can ship a full truckload of 22 tons to
be competitive. Please ask your feed and grain supplier
to start distributing our MAG products. We give an absolute
guarantee; if you follow our instructions and MAG doesn’t
fix your arena dust problems, we’ll refund your money.
We are THAT confident in our product. We have never failed
to provide complete dust control in 12 years of supplying
this product.
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MAG®
Care and Feeding for Dust Control in Indoor Horse Arenas as
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